The Roses, the Thorns
by AuroraAustralice
Summary: Someone is hunting war survives…. The Rose killer they call him And he is out for blood, He wants all the filthy wizards and witches dead. R and R Please- (Full Summery Inside)
1. Chapter 1

_**The Thorns, the Roses **_

Someone is hunting war hero's….

The Rose killer they call him; till now he has taken the life of Lavender Brown, Percy Weasley, Audrey Clearwater and Daphne Greengrass. The serial killer who is now terrorizing the wizerding world hunts only people who fought in the last battle; he don't care which side they fought on, he kills them the same way. No magic, a single slice of the jugular after torturing them to insanity… and all he leaves behind is a single rose on the lips of each victim, always a different color, always piercing the lips of the his victim , with their house scarves folded across the legs and a gory message across their chests carved out with a knife.

_**You are next…**_

Draco Malfoy is the Auror working the case with his partner Harry Potter; they are in vain trying to hunt down this extremely smart serial killer who seems to leave no trace behind. Frustrated Harry confides in this friend Hermione Granger that they cannot seem to make head or tail of this case.

So she does what she has always done… she offers her help. As a healer trained in both muggle and magic medicine, she knows how to perform an autopsy, she cuts into the victims because the Auror Department has no idea how he is subduing his victims, they cannot find any trace evidence of magic on either the body or the places they find the body. But when Hermione does cut into the body, she finds a shocking secret.

The heart is missing, ripped forth from the chest without leaving a trace. She knows this is deep dark magic… things beyond her control and she has no idea how to stop it…

Can Hermione and Draco put aside their differences and work together, especially now when the killer has come after his _prix' cochon_ …. His prize pig, who he cannot wait to slaughter. Hermione Granger. He has great plans for her, he plans to torture her slowly and then for the final insult to display her to the entire wizerding world to show them his genius… for he outwitted the smartest witch of their age.

After one such attack, Harry sends Draco to protect her, can they live together and find the sick man who is behind these heinous crimes or will they fall apart first?

This story follows not just the tale of the serial killer, it also follows the hard life and demands of being an Auror, what it will do to your marriage, how it will affect you personally…

_**SneekPeak **_

"Come out come out wee little mousey, I want to play with you…. Come out come out my rosy posy I want to play with you… come out come out my little doll I want to play now." Cackled the maniacal man as he stalked though the warehouse reveling in each whimper of the terrified woman who was hiding behind the box. He liked to give them a small head start before he killed them; it wasn't like they could get far… especially this one. He had broken all the bones in her right leg the day after she came….

"Is that you wee mousey?" he called out dramatically, "Are you hiding behind that cage? Why don't you answer rosy posy? Cat got your tongue?" he smirked, thinking how he had fed the stray cat who wandered into the warehouse with her constantly moving tongue…. Well he shrugged nonchalantly; she gave him no choice with all her screams and her crying.

He was getting bored now…. It was time to finish the game…

* * *

_**Characters: **__**Draco Malfoy/ Hermione Granger, Harry Potter/ Ginny Weasley( later Cho Chang),Blaise Zabini/ Pansy Parkinson later(Luna Lovegood), Theo Nott/ Adrian Pusey.**_

_**Warnings:**__** Character Death, Lemons, Cannibalism, Torture, Rape.**_

_**Tell Me What you think?! :D**_


	2. The White Rose

**A/N:** _I have only one request for people who read this story. Please keep an open mind. And __**Rate**__ and __**Review**__ Please. _

_**The Roses, the Thorns**_

"She is still warm. Rigor-mortis hasn't set in yet." Harry said calmly, his eyes behind round glasses told a different story. He was anything but calm, Lavender Brown; the third victim of the Rose Killer as he was dubbed by the public lay absolutely still on the ground, her eyes open and her mouth parted in a mask of horror so profound that Draco had to look away. He had dressed her and put makeup on her face.

On her deep red lips lay a pure white rose contrasting in a horrid symphony with the deep purple on her eyelids and almost rude, bright red 'whore' blush stroked across her cheekbones.

"Cause of death?" Draco asked, his voice coming out rough and almost clogged, he didn't need to ask. He knew how she was killed, a single, surgically precise cut to her jugular. So small that if you didn't look carefully you would miss it.

Her torso was bare and her papery skin was pulled tight over her small breasts, tiny lashes around the nipples and stomach, showed them what they already knew. He had tortured her too. Across her hips was a length wise folded Gryffindor scarf, barley covering her pubic mound. The rest of her body was bare, like he always left them.

He never raped them… but he liked to display them as sexually promiscuous beings that he killed to redeem the world of sin. Her hands were folded as if in prayer under the gory message carved into her pale skin.

_**You Are Next**_

The words were in calligraphy, like he took the time out to carve them into her skin with careful precision. The knife work was almost artistic, swirling and dipping with the natural curves of her body. To create a red gaping wound that made Draco want to vomit.

"When did we get the tip-off?" he asked, trying to distract himself from her horror filled eyes.

"Last night, the bastard is playing with us…" Harry said coldly, gently running his hands over her body, not touching just running them above her skin. "I rushed out immediately."

"Things that bad at home?" Draco asked hesitantly, it was a sensitive subject that his partner did not like to touch upon.

"You could say that, she wants me to take fewer shifts. She wants me to take her to all her charitable balls and Quidditch promotion events. She wants me to ask for a raise, as if twenty one thousand galleons a week is not enough! More money… More time…More… More... More! I love her and I want to give her what she wants but she is behaving like a child…" he said frustrated, "Pouting and whining, cribbing and nagging. I have no idea what to do."

"How is James handling it?" Draco asked.

"The same way Scorpius handled it when you divorced Astoria, lucky for me though Ginny is not tripped up half the time." Harry said angrily, getting up and stalking away from the scene.

Draco wisely kept away, focusing instead on the gory scene infront of him, making a mental note to lock up the files of this case that he kept in his study.

Scorpius; his three year old son had a habit of wandering, he was a curious child and Draco didn't want him to come across these pictures in any of his excursions.

He pulled the latex gloves on and gently pried the girl's hands apart, in a bit her body would go stiff and it would become harder to examine her. They had yet to find any anomalies in these deaths, but Harry suggested they have the body autopsied, a muggle procedure involving the opening of the body to catalogue and inspect the inner contents. The integration of muggle procedures had proved to be helpful in certain ways in their line of work.

Harry and Draco walked around the marshy undergrowth hoping… praying really if Draco was honest for a clue or some evidence. It was hopeless, this bastard was meticulous. The tip-off had come at exactly fifteen minutes past twelve, which meant Harry and Draco had arrived at the scene fifteen minutes later, he had timed it perfectly as always. The moment they arrived the moon was at its peak.

It painted Lavenders body in the most eerie of ways, the moonlight illuminated her face in almost a parody of a living creature and for a moment Draco had felt his heart jump at the prospect of her being alive, then the shadows dipped and curved, highlighting the message stamped across her chest in big bold letters and Draco felt his stomach roil and drop in disgust and every move they made now felt watched, they felt as if the bastard was still somewhere in the marshy woods, looking at them , smirking at their incompetency.

"I'm going to transfer this to Saint. Mungo's, Hermione is waiting for us." Said Harry with a low shiver.

"Wait! What!? The fuck does Granger have to do with this?" Draco snarled out, swinging around to face his partner with a steely look in his eye.

"She is trained in muggle medicine; she is performing the autopsy Malfoy."

Draco wanted to say something but he held his tongue, right now getting this killer was the priority. He was not going to waste time bickering with Granger or arguing with Potter about the best way to deal with this.

...

The specially cooled room was the exact temperature for her to store the body; Hermione Granger snapped on her latex gloves and straightened her scrubs, her usually warm mocha eyes grim.

The moment she began her autopsy, Malfoy and Harry would like to be there, though she didn't think they could handle it. Stepping inside she ignored the two men other than a brief nod, this was not a moment of frivolous greetings and warm hellos, one of their class mates was dead on this table and Hermione was going to cut into her. She had much more on her mind…

The parchment and Quick Quotes Quill was ready to take down her notes and observations. The silence in the room was heavy and foreboding, thick with undercurrents of fear mingled with anger. Anger that this had happened to one of them… and fear for what was to happen next.

Hermione cleared her throat, "August 2nd 2005, autopsy of victim number three of unknown killer, name of subject; Lavender Brown. Let the record show that the victim's blood type was O negative, hair: blonde, eyes: green and victim was allergic to penicillin."

Hermione moved around the body slowly observing everything first, not touching, "On primary observation the victim as contusions around her abdomen and chest area, sharp edged trauma. Perhaps a knife, what kind will be determined only after a mold is constructed. Bruising on her legs suggests blunt force trauma."

Hermione reached out and firmly grasped Lavender's right leg feeling up and down. "Let the record show that all bones of the victims right leg are shattered…" she said swallowing painfully past the lump in her throat. "There is no sign of trace evidence left behind by the perpetrator." Hermione gestured the two men forward, "See the cuts on her arms… she fought back, these are defensive wounds. If we are lucky she scratched her killer and we might just get some of his epithelia's from under her nails." Hermione said as she ran a sharp edged object under Lavender's well-manicured nails to get any trace.

Now came the hard part, gently lifting a scalpel Hermione made an incision into Lavender's chest cavity, carefully parting the skin flaps to display her insides, using the reactors Hermione pried apart her ribs, letting out a shocked gasp when she saw….

Lavender was missing her heart! The Aorta, The Inferior and the Superior Vena Cava, along with the Pulmonary Artery and Vein were dangling like useless threads, as if someone had literally ripped her heart out of her chest. Forcing herself to remain calm she said in a shaking voice.

"The victim is missing the heart and as indicated by her cardio-vascular structure it seems to have been taken from her chest cavity by force."

On further examination, Lavender's body was exactly as it was meant to be, the body of a healthy young woman in her early twenties. Other than her heart the rest of her anatomy was untouched, the rape kit came back negative and in an hour Hermione was putting the last of the sutures to her gaping chest wound.

Walking into the scrub room she cleaned her hands and stripped off the gloves, after collecting her notes she asked the Aurors to meet her in her office.

…..

"I have never seen anything like this before Harry I assure you." Hermione said, holding onto her friend's hand. "The magic involved here is beyond all explanation, he not only removed her heart without damaging her skin, he also managed to keep her alive after he took her heart. The body was pumping blood without the heart." She said shaking her head in disbelief. "I think the heart is his trophy, all serial killers take trophies but this… this I have never seen before, ever…"

"We need to inform the parents Potter." Said Draco who was leaning back against the wall, silent through most of the conversation he walked forwards and stubbed out his aromatic cigarette, the scent of Tabaco filling the air.

"Doctor and Mrs. Brown are here, Felicia Brown is the witch and Edmond Brown is a muggle, a G.P working in the states, they are divorced and Lavender's father works in Massachusetts General in the states, I think she was estranged from her parents, so I haven't informed them why they are here yet. Let's go…"

Harry felt cold dread seep through his system numbing him, this was the worst part of his job… telling parents that their children were never coming back again, Draco found it painful too that's why he remained as detached as possible.

Harry got up walked stiffly to the door, giving his best-friend a painful smile.

…

They were sitting together on one of the sofas outside in reception; both of them wore quizzical looks.

Harry walked up to them and began, "Mr. and Ms. Brown? I have some bad news for you regarding your daughter Lavender. My name is Harry Potter and I'm sorry to tell you that your daughter passed away yesterday…."

And the loud wail of the mother shook the entire floor, everyone turned to stare at the woman who had fallen of her seat in pain and curled into a fetal ball….

…


	3. The Intruder

_**The Rose, the Thorns**_

Draco rolled of Jane panting, today had been an exhausting day and he had needed the sexual release, just good old-fashioned, casual, meaningless 'fuck me till my brain bursts' sex and Jane McConnell was perfect.

A model and singer, Jane was rich, successful and they were very good friends, both of them were not in the least bit interested in having a relationship with each other or anyone else. And Draco knew that she would never go after him for his money, she had enough of her own.

Leaning back against her bed-rest he lit up a cigarette, inhaling the aromatic, tangy smoke given out. The blonde woman slid up next to him, her manicured nails slipping the cigarette into her own red painted lips as she leaned back and regarded him with her cat like slanted green eyes, "Tough day at work?" she mocked gently, reaching over to the table and picking up the still cool glass of Pinot Grigio and in the process dropping the sheet that covered her naked, tanned body.

"One of the worst I have ever had…" he said shortly, his tone clearly stating that this was not a topic up for discussion.

"Oh don't pout Draco; it's not a nice look on a man. I was just asking out of mere curiosity." She smirked blowing the aromatic smoke out of nose whilst lounging back, the bell of the wine glass pressed against one sweat dampened breast. She filled her mouth with some of the tart white and moved to straddle Draco, pressing her lips and slipping the wine into his mouth. Draco kissed her back, lust soaring through his veins, with one hand he cupped her buttocks and with the other he first disposed of the cigarette and next the wine glass.

….

After an intense, heavy make-out session Draco got up to dress, pulling on his jeans and black t-shirt while Jane curled up in the oyster pink sheets like a content cat.

"How are things at home?" she questioned casually.

"Honestly?"

"Always…" she said with wave of her hand.

"Two words… fucked up. Scorpius wants his mummy, he would he's three. He doesn't know yet that his mother is a vindictive, neglectful bitch whose meth habit nearly killed him."

"What!? Are you kidding me?"

"No, the fumes of the meth seeped into the walls of her apartment and into the floor and into his toys, basically the entire house was poison trap and two weeks after they gave him to me his body went into drug withdrawal because he was so used to inhaling the fumes, every time he touched something like the floor or the walls and put his hands in his mouth without washing them, more of the drug seeped into his system. And the goddamn cherry on the top is he has a father like me! I don't know jack about being a father, I can't talk to him, communicate… so I just leave him with his nanny." He said helpless and angry.

"Come on, you have to at least try Draco."

"Yeah because I had such a great role-model to emulate right. Maybe I am just not meant to be a father." He snapped sarcastically, "Look Janie I came to have sex not to get a bloody lecture from you, but I had a great time, so thanks." He said sliding his black T-shirt over his hard silky packed abdomen, his muscles bunched and flexed over his back and broad shoulders as he slid his feet into battered old army boots. Slipping on his shoulder holster and his tan leather jacket he walked with Jane to the door of her apartment in East Finchley.

"I'll see you. Stay lose." She said winking while slowly running her hand though his long floppy bangs that fell messily over his forehead, they contrasted well with the firmness of his face, his granite jaw, aristocratic nose, sky high cheekbones and cold, artic eyes.

"I'll call you." He said dismissively, brushing her hand away and strode out of the apartment.

…..

On the other side of town Hermione was thinking about a certain blond…. Draco Malfoy had reappeared into the wizerding world just as mysteriously as he had disappeared a year after the war. When she asked Harry about it he just gave a vague rather unsatisfying explanation. He had been fighting to bring peace to the areas outside of England that were affected by Voldemort's rise in power, which made her curious about him.

While he stood in her office she had noticed he moved with a certain stiffness, brought on she was sure by either muggle weapons or constant contact with the Cruciatus. He had left a boy and he had returned a man… a changed, cold man. Just thinking about his gray eyes sent a shiver down her spine.

Was he really the right man for this case? Hermione just felt odd, nobody knew anything about what he had done when he was gone, where he had been, what he had really been doing?

But Harry had convinced her that he was the man for the job and till now Harry's instincts had never been wrong so she just had to trust him no matter how apprehensive she felt.

Hermione had walked all the way home with her troubled thoughts; she let herself into her small one bedroom apartment in Camden. As always she felt a warm sense of homecoming, and felt enveloped in the warmth of her house.

The tiny apartment was very bohemian chic, with colorful tie and dye scarves thrown over lamps and lights and a worn out old couch made of the softest eggshell linin, the whole house smelt of fish and chips from the shop below but she didn't mind.

Chucking off her shoes she walked down the hallway and into her darkened bedroom, it was a big room. Artfully done with a large four poster bed with fine gossamer curtains in periwinkle blue and lavender purple with just hints and accents of baby pink here and there, the rest of the room was in themes of robin's egg blue and cream and all the wood was a light goldenly hue.

She switched on the lights and sat down in front of her dressing table mirror, carefully she removed all of her ravaged make-up and got up and stripped out of her suffocating suit, it was a beautiful piece, a three piece business suit with a tight pencil skirt, in entire ensemble was in cherry red and beige. But right now it just felt like a noose.

Getting out of her work clothes she walked into the shower, letting the warm water cascade of her body, feeling some of the tension of the day wash of her body. It was going to take her long time to get over seeing Lavender's body like that but it was her job to now find the crazed manic who put her on Hermione's table.

Taking a fluffy blue towel she tucked it around herself, opening up her shower cap next to brush her curls out Hermione got dressed in an old 'softened by many washes' Mickey Mouse T-shirt and some knickers.

She walked out the bathroom and into the hallway to get to her phone to order some food, when suddenly she spotted a silhouette sitting silently on her old couch, Hermione grabbed her wand from her purse that she had casually chucked in the hallway and advanced silently, her heart pounding.

The figure moved quickly, almost like a blur and before Hermione could react she was pinned down on the ground by a smirking Draco Malfoy.

"Well -well Granger who would've thought that's what your underwear looks like! I'm impressed…" said an amusement laced voice.

…..


End file.
